Agronomy is the branch of agriculture dealing with field-crop production and soil management. Modern field crop farming relies on precision treatment of the soil. However, no soil treatment is possible before soil analysis indicates the precise treatment required.
The types of soil and climate in a given area, determine to a great extent, the kind of farming and the various crops that can be successfully grown at such location. Within any given area there are many kinds of soil having certain properties that require different land practices based on the residual and natural level of fertility. Because of these inherent variations, soil analysis has become a highly specialized field of endeavor for the chemical and fertilizer industry. Through research and experimentation these specialists have come to know what to expect of different types of soil and how to best supplement each particular type to produce maximum crop yield.
A good laboratory soil test and recommendation is primarily predicated on a reliable soil sample. Said test and any recommendations derived therefrom are only as reliable and accurate as the composite sample taken from the soil strata. Conversely, a poor soil sample can result in recommendations which are misleading to the producer and can cause lower yields due to the improper use of supplements. Before discovery of the subject invention, the conventional method of taking soil samples has been by the use of a clean bucket and a spade or by the use of a simple soil auger. Such methods are laborious, expensive, and time consuming and to say the least, not always reliable as the sampling operation is in such instances always subject to the element of error on the part of the sampler.
One previous attempt to provide a partially mechanizes soil sampling apparatus is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 8,613,234, issued Dec. 24, 2013 to Linn Harrell for SOIL SAMPLING APPARATUS.
HARRELL teaches rudimentary versions of some steps of soil sampling but requires large numbers of manually performed steps before soil samples are acquired. A driver of the tow vehicle must leave the cab frequently to affect many of the required soil sampling operations.
It would, therefore, be desirable to refine and automate many of the soil sampling steps required by the HARRELL apparatus to make an efficient, highly automate soil sampling device.